1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fastener for laying pipes which is used for laying respective types of pipe such as service water pipes, gas pipes, cooling pipes and heating pipes from a ceiling, hereinafter, it may be abbreviated as a piping fastener.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 11 shows a general fastener for laying pipes which is conventionally widely used.
The fastener shown in FIG. 11 is used for hanging, suspending or supporting a pipe 8 from a ceiling. In this type of the fastener, a turn buckle 3 which is used to adjust the height or position of the fastener through adjusting position of a nut 2 to the hanger bolt 1 which is suspended from an anchor fixed to the ceiling, and with the result that half bands 5A, 5B for grasping the pipe is fixed to leg portions 3A and 3B of the turn buckle 3 which is suspended and fixed. That is, both ends of the half bands 5A, 5B which are assembled by a hinge mechanism 4 in such a manner that the bands can be freely opened and closed, and which is separated at the right and left are fixed to the bolt 6 and the nut 7 thereby supporting the pipe 8. In the actual work, first, the hanger bolt 1 is attached on the anchor on the ceiling, and subsequently, the piping is attached on this anchor.
At the time of attaching the piping, after the nut 7 is loosened and detached from the bolt 6, and the half band 5B is opened with a hinge mechanism 4 as shown by a dashed line, the pipe 8 is arranged on the inside of the other half band 5A. Thereafter, work is performed for bringing back the detached half band 5B, and fixing the end of this half band 5B to the end of the other half band 5A with the bolt 6 and the nut 7.
At the time of grasping the pipe 8, the half band 5B is already set in a state shown by an imaginary line wherein the half band 5B is opened from the bolt 6 and the nut 7. Thus, the half band 5B is rotated from the state shown by the imaginary line to the state shown by a solid line while grasping the pipe 8 by half band 5A with the result that a circular hole at the end of the half band 5B is inserted into the end of the bolt 6 followed by attaching and fixing the nut 7 to the end of the bolt 6.
The above type of the piping fastener having a turn buckle as shown in FIG. 11 cannot be used, in a case where the position of the piping approaches from the ceiling. That is, it is very difficult to perform fixing with the bolt 6 and the nut 7 in a slight gap between the piping and lower part of the ceiling.
As a technique for solving the above-mentioned problem, a piping fastener having a structure in which an attachment portion to the hanger bolt 1 is provided at the center of the side of one of the half bands 5A and 5B having a half-divided ring-like configuration is described in Registered Utility Model Publication No. 3058296, Unexamined Patent Publication No. H10-238660, Unexamined Patent Publication No. H11-182743 and the Patent Gazette (National Publication of Translated Version) No. 2000-513084.
FIG. 12 shows the piping fastener described in the above-mentioned Registered Utility Model Publication No. 3058296. This piping fastener has a structure in which the half bands 5A and 5B are integrally connected by the hinge mechanism 4, and the half band 5A is attached to the hanger bolt 1 at the attaching position which is settled on the side of the half band 5A, thereby attachment to an anchor (such as an embedded nut or the like) is directly fixed to a ceiling or the like without intervention of the turn buckle as shown in FIG. 11.
In the piping fastener shown in the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model No. 3058296, since the half bands 5A and 5B are fixed each other on the side position of the pipe 8, the work of fixing the bolt 6 and the nut 7 is difficult despite the presence of a space which allows the hands of a worker to be inserted in the sidewise direction of the pipe 8. That is, since the bolt 6 and the nut 7 are free elements which are separated from and independent of the half bands 5A and 5B, when the nut 7 is detached so as to grasp the piping, it often leads to the detachment of the bolt 6 because of vibration at the time of the work, further, a worker may drop the detached nut 7.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems. Therefore, a first object of the present invention is to provide a fastener for laying pipes which enables laying pipes by a simple work. A second object of the present invention is to provide a fastener for laying pipes which has mechanism preventing to detach nuts and bolts from the bands.
The inventor of the present invention have continued research on a fastener for laying pipes for solving the above-mentioned problems and have found that the projection portion becomes an obstacle in a case where a spatial allowance below the pipe is small or the head is bumped against the projection portion during work, when the mechanism for fixing the bands is projected in a downward direction. In particular, when the ceiling is low or when the piping position is low or the like, it has been found that there is a fear that the head or the shoulder is contacted when the work is done under the pipes or when the worker passes under the pipes Then, as disclosed in the above-mentioned registered Utility Model Publication No. 3058296, the inventor of the present invention has considered the formation of a structure which is not projected in a downward direction by the location of the mechanism for fixing the bands at the center of the side portion from below. However, in this case, it has been found that the projection portion becomes an obstacle when other pipes and wiring are required to be arranged side by side with each other, or the projection portion becomes an obstacle when it is required to arrange the pipes at a location where the pipes come into contact with the wall and the like.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a fastener for laying pipes which can be arranged at a construction site where spatial allowance is small on the side of the pipes or below the pipes and which takes into consideration safety at the time of work.